Glenn Shepard
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tweettropiques.bsky.social
Glenn Shepard
@tweettropiques.bsky.social

Ethnobotanist, anthropologist, polyglot & filmmaker living and working in Brazilian Amazon; traditional medicine, sensory ecology, Indigenous media; New York Review contributor; Blog: Notes from the Ethnoground https://ethnoground.blogspot.com .. more

Environmental science 32%
Psychology 19%
Pinned
Infinite Jest: an homage to #DavidFosterWallace I made many years ago for an #InfiniteJest film festival. This short film imagines J.O. Incandenza on set with Mme. Psychosis as they make the fatal samizdat from the eponymous novel. Enjoy, but not too much…

vimeo.com/1104526242

@mariabustillos.com
Infinite Jest IV
Infinite Jest IV (Digital video, color w/sound; 8 minutes) ©2011 by Glenn H. Shepard Jr. and Lee Matney Infinite Jest, inspired by the novel by David Foster…
vimeo.com

"Indigenous Water Guardians": Part 2 of a 3 part series on TV Peru about Rainforest Flow's water projectsthat have reduced childhood deaths from diarrhea by 73% in the last 15 years in Matsigenka Indigenous communities of Manu National Park

youtu.be/w3nh5SDk7JA?...
youtu.be

🤬

A movie you've seen more than 7 times in a GIF (and this one is exponential...)

Reposted by Glenn H. Shepard

Brazil’s official data show deforestation in the Amazon fell 11% in the 12 months to July 2025, with independent monitoring by Imazon confirming a similar trend—evidence that policies under President Lula da Silva are reversing the sharp rise seen during Jair Bolsonaro’s administration.
Heading into COP, Brazil’s Amazon deforestation rate is falling. What about fires?
As the world’s attention turns toward COP30 in Belém next month, the story of Brazil’s Amazon is shifting—though not quite in a straightforward way. According to the government’s satellite-based...
news.mongabay.com
someone invited people magazine to the kitchen and they brought their own knives

"If spying is mostly writing, a good deal of the remainder is waiting."

-- David McCloskey

@spybrary.bsky.social

Reposted by Glenn H. Shepard

Happy All Souls day from Paul Celan (trans. by Michael Hamburger)

Reposted by Glenn H. Shepard

By combining 8 different nanobodies isolated from alpacas and llamas following immunization with snake venom - this research team has produced an antivenom that not only protects against 17 different snake venoms but also protects from tissue local damage, a major problem associated with bites.
Single antivenom protects against 17 different snakebites
Researchers immunized an alpaca and a llama with snake venoms, and combined some of the antibodies produced into a potent cocktail.
www.nature.com

"Journey to the Heart of Manu", 1st in a 2 part series on TV Peru about Matsigenka indigenous communities of Manu National Park and the life-saving water and sanitation projects implemented there by Rainforest Flow

Part 2 airs Sunday at 8 PM, Peru time on TVPerú

youtu.be/dVnMsVNrLj8?...
🌿 Expedición al corazón del Manu: una travesía hacia la comunidad más aislada del Perú 🌎
YouTube video by TVPerú Noticias
youtu.be

Always have to work in a little ethnobotany into the TV Peru special on the Matsigenka people of Manu National Park!

The segment begins at 23:00 www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHh0...

Last night, TV Peru debuted the first in a two part series on the Matsigenka people of Manu. Part 2 which airs next Sunday will focus on the life-saving water & sanitation systems developed by Rainforest Flow for these remote communities.

The segment begins at 23:00 www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHh0...

Reposted by Glenn H. Shepard

To select stories for the anthology of classic Japanese sci-fi I'm editing for MIT Press, I started reading this 1971 collection of pre-WWII short stories

Today I read the 1925 short story The Man Traveling With the Brocade Portrait (押絵と旅する男) by Edogawa Ranpo

#japanese #classic #scifi #anthology

With the Rainforest Flow team at FLARE 2025 conference in Lima presenting 20 years of sustainable, life-saving water & sanitation technologies in Indigenous communities of the Peruvian Amazon

Photos: Neil Giardino

rainforestflow.org
The richest man on earth owns X.

The second richest man on earth is about to acquire TikTok and his family could soon own both Paramount and Warner Bros.

The third richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The fourth richest man owns The Washington Post.

See the problem here?

Because of course
The White House's East Wing construction rubble was taken to East Potomac Golf Course. It was reported that the rubble will be used to create mounds on the golf course.

Read more: bit.ly/4oa2tXA

Cut off your nose to spite your economy, your scientific output and your health.
In fact, good luck with any university research:

"...Cuts to NIH and NSF funding alone will cost the U.S. economy between $10B-$16B annually in decreased economic output. Additionally, researchers estimate that proposed cuts to NIH funding would result in nearly 70,000 jobs lost nationwide."
Mapping Federal Funding Cuts to U.S. Colleges and Universities
American science and innovation should not be subject to the political winds of the day. Find out how the Trump administration’s grant terminations are affecting your school, your community, and your ...
www.americanprogress.org

Reposted by Glenn H. Shepard

In fact, good luck with any university research:

"...Cuts to NIH and NSF funding alone will cost the U.S. economy between $10B-$16B annually in decreased economic output. Additionally, researchers estimate that proposed cuts to NIH funding would result in nearly 70,000 jobs lost nationwide."
Mapping Federal Funding Cuts to U.S. Colleges and Universities
American science and innovation should not be subject to the political winds of the day. Find out how the Trump administration’s grant terminations are affecting your school, your community, and your ...
www.americanprogress.org

Reposted by Glenn H. Shepard

Hey, it turns out if you have binoculars and can find the constellation Boötes you can see the Comet Lemmon right now! We spotted it in Cambridge, so you don't even have to be somewhere particularly dark!
The White House's East Wing construction rubble was taken to East Potomac Golf Course. It was reported that the rubble will be used to create mounds on the golf course.

Read more: bit.ly/4oa2tXA
I'm recruiting PhD students for the Barker Lab @uofa-eeb.bsky.social We study plant evolutionary genomics - polyploidy, hybridization & machine learning for genome evolution. Work with Selaginella, Xanthisma, Brassica & more. Funding available via CAMBIUM Fellowships. Reach out if interested! 🧬🌵🤖
Alright, team Bluesky: US foodbanks are about to have staggering demand when SNAP ends Nov 1st. We need to help them prepare.

I'll match donations: DM or reply with a receipt showing your own donation to a food bank of your choice, and I'll donate to match, up to a total of $500. 💪🥗🍲🥚🥧🥪🥣🥛
#NoHunger

Will do!

Would love to!

"Materials carry history. How we handle them—whether in the studio or the lab—is a form of care."

-- an interview with my talented daughter, Thais Shepard -- artist and aspiring conservator -- with photographer and art consultant John Lee Matney.

www.lindamatneygallery.com/news/2025/10...

He already did that...

Indeed! And I'm part of it!
University College London seeks candidates for a FUNDED Ph.D. in #geoarcheology and #archeobotany examining the antiquity of slash and burn agriculture in the northwest Amazon of Brazil

Deadline 17 December!

www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/how...
How old is slash-and-burn in Amazonia? | TREES DLA
Slash-and-burn is the dominant strategy for plant cultivation in rural Amazonia yet its antiquity in pre-Colonial times is unclear. Ascertaining both its antiquity and differences compared to modern s...
www.trees-dla.ac.uk

University College of London seeking applicants for a field intensive post-doc in environmental #archeology in the Brazilian northwest Amazon region. Deadline November 10!

www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
UCL – University College London
UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).
www.ucl.ac.uk

Will put that on my calendar! Until then, 5th floor circulation only?

When hope is suspect then what is being peddled exactly? Despair? Or mere crushing conformity?